Coupe d'Afrique Occidentale Française

Tournament for the former French Western African territories. This area
comprised the current states of Benin (then Dahomey), Burkina Faso
(then Haute-Volta), Guinea (Guinée), Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire),
Mali (then Soudan), Mauritania (Mauritanie), Niger and Senegal (Sénégal).
The current Togo was not part of the A.O.F. but its clubs gained
entrance to the tournament during the last five editions (first in
1955/56).

The Ligue d'AOF de Foot-Ball was created in March 1946 in Dakar. The
only French Western African territory which refused to enter was
Mauritania. The organisation was officially affiliated to the FFF
(French FA) in 1951.

The Coupe d'AOF was created in 1947, when the president of the
Ligue d'AOF, Mr. Barat, received a trophy from the FFF. He
immediately announced a competition for the trophy, a Coupe du
Sénégal, for clubs from the "4 communes du Sénégal",
Dakar, Gorée, Rufisque and Saint-Louis. Sixteen clubs from these
towns, all in current Senegal, entered the first round (1/8 finals)
of the competition, played early April 1947. On the 17th of April,
a new weekly sports magazine, "Afriqu'Sports", appeared in Dakar,
referring to the competition as "Coupe d'AOF". This name was
eventually taken up by the other media, and the second edition then
indeed extended beyond Senegal. Shortly after the introduction of
the football cup, similar tournaments were started in rugby (1951) and
basketball (1952).

The first edition in 1947, restricted to Senegal, had 16 participants;
the highest number of participants (302) was reached in 1958/59, while
the final edition (as Coupe Interfédérale; the territories of French
West Africa were gradually gaining independence at the time) still
had 205 participants (the regions of Guinée and Côte d'Ivoire did not
enter).